


we belong to the night

by arkcana



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Drabble, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28212177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arkcana/pseuds/arkcana
Summary: a short drabble; the way caleb feels about essek
Relationships: Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 7
Kudos: 42





	we belong to the night

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't written anything fanfiction-y in a long time, so i hope you enjoy this little thing i did to pass time at work :)

In this moment, Caleb might know what peace feels like.

Peace is that feeling, deep in the night, when everything is silent. Even the owls have gone to bed, for the sun threatens to rise in a few hours. It’s the latest part of the night, when the Nein are asleep, curled in their beds and dreaming of cat princes and the sea. But most importantly, it’s the part of the night where someone can truly be alone with the only other person in the world is awake with them.

Essek releases a slow breath, a tangled mess of bliss and anticipation. The dark heather color of his skin, Caleb thinks, is like the midnight itself, so he traces invisible lines between the deep purple freckles that are smattered across his skin, finding constellations there. They could lie here, their legs braided together and skin pressed against skin for the entirety of the remainder of his hundred years on this earth and it would never suffice.

The night has always had a way with understanding Caleb’s inner workings. Black looked best draped over his shoulders, fit easiest in his heart, worked best putting together ideas in the back of his mind. It was good, kind, and true, but the darkest of things could hide easily in it.

And in the way the night understands Caleb, Caleb understands Essek—the way secrets go unnoticed, the way he hungers for knowledge, the way he tests the limit of morality. And though it might be hard to see at first, his virtue shines like tiny suns too far away against the black.

Caleb has long since learned how to walk in the sun. It doesn’t hurt, not anymore. The warmth feels right on his skin, showing the jagged lines of his scars and casting light into all of his hidden places. He rarely remembers the smell of cinders from his past, when his mind is too preoccupied with the present.

With Essek, though, his body remembers what it was like to be a creature of the night. That forbidden sense of belonging, the comfort of being unknown. So for tonight, he’ll lean into who he once was, to be here with Essek. Guiltlessly, because tomorrow morning, he’ll rise with the Nein as he always does, and one day, perhaps Essek will, too. But perhaps under the sun isn't the place for drow, and not a place for Essek.

Yet, Caleb would like to believe, not _yet_.

They lay together for hours, until early dawn cuts through the darkness. The golden light smears the black into an ashy blue. Essek shies away from the light that begins to filter through the window, the lithe frame of his body stirring with… disappointment? Irritation? He places a final kiss on Caleb’s forehead, before disappearing into the shadows.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hello to me on twitter @nydorin!


End file.
